| SHADOWS ON THE WALL | REVIEWS | NEWS | FESTIVAL | AWARDS | Q&A | ABOUT | TALKBACK | |||||||||||||
 Shadows off the beaten pathIndies, foreigns, docs and shorts...
On this page:
QUEEN TUT |
SUMMER SOLSTICE |
ULTRAMAN: RISING
| |||||||||||||
| See also: SHADOWS FILM FESTIVAL | Last update 17.Jun.24 | |||||||||||||
|
Queen Tut Review by Rich Cline | 
| |||||||||||||
 dir Reem Morsi prd Shant Joshi, Lindsay Blair Goeldner scr Bryan Mark, Abdul Malik, Kaveh Mohebbi with Ryan Ali, Alexandra Billings, Thom Allison, Kiriana Stanton, Dani Jazzar, Mostafa Shaker, Al Maini, Nicky Nasrallah, Dariush Zadeh, Amani Ibrahim, Cru Levey, Marcus Nance release Can 23.Feb.24, US 14.Jun.24 23/Canada 1h40 Is it streaming? |
 Warm and funny, this Canadian drama has a lovely relaxed tone that cuts through the surfaces, creating a knowing and insightful take on strongly resonant cultural issues. It's a thoughtful exploration of immigration, religion, commerce and sexuality, packed with beautiful moments that craft a remarkably involving depiction of a young man who finds himself in that space between who he is and who others want him to be. After his mother dies in Cairo, Nabil (Ali) moves to live with his father (Jazzar) in Toronto, afraid to admit that he doesn't want to follow in the property development. This tension grows as Nabil meets the fabulous drag club owner Malibu (Billings), who is fighting aggressive gentrification. Nabil quickly realises that Malibu can help him fulfil his late mother's legacy as a seamstress. Indeed, his introduction to drag sparks something inside him, as does meeting cute Egyptian Morcos (Shaker) at a Coptic church function. And Nabil's alter-ego Queen Tut helps him find his voice. Glimpses of Nabil as a young boy (Levey) with his mother (Ibrahim) reveal a lively, creative child with a flair for performing. Encountering the openness of Canadian society, Nabill understands the restrictions of his Egyptian heritage, but for the first time he begins to question what that truly means for him. He's also realistically frightened of where this is leading him, especially when his dad spots him alongside his queer friends at a protest against developers. Ali gives Nabil a wonderfully open-handed personality, likeably tentative but also steely in his resolve to shake things up and become who he needs to be. It's a charming, funny, nuanced performance that often surprises us. Radiating charisma, Billings has terrific energy as the hilariously matter-of-fact Malibu. Her determination to save her bar is fierce, augmented by Allison and Stanton as her sparky colleagues. Malibu notes that anger is necessary in dire circumstances. So Nabil has to stand up to his father and give himself permission to move on with his own life. And as she deals with her own legacy, Malibu needs to find a way to do the same thing. With a climactic history lesson, the film becomes a yearning cry from a persecuted group that doesn't want to let the world steal what little space they have left. So this is also a call for resilience from people simply trying to live their truth.
| ||||||||||||
|
Summer Solstice Review by Rich Cline |
| |||||||||||||
 dir-scr Noah Schamus prd Jess Zeidman, Jesse Miller, Arno Mokros, Harper Makowsky, Noah Schamus with Bobbi Salvor Menuez, Marianne Rendon, Mila Myles, Yaron Lotan, Monica Sanborn, Keenan Jolliff, Elizabeth Ward Land, Tracy Sallows, Chris McKee, Alex Escaja, John Raynolds, Amara Leonard release UK Mar.24 flare, US 14.Jun.24 23/US 1h21  Is it streaming? |
 Engagingly offhanded, this comedy-drama follows likeable characters on a warm journey as they explore their identities and connections. Writer-director Noah Schamus creates a superbly authentic vibe with a sharp personal kick. The dialog is witty and often sharply pointed, exploring wider issues about gender and sexuality. And the film never falls into either melodrama or a romcom structure, instead remaining fresh and skilfully understated, a gently involving gem. Struggling to find acting work as a trans man in New York, Leo (Salvor Menuez) attends auditions and acting classes while seeing classmate Alice (Sanborn), who wants to keep their hookups secret. Then his old friend Eleanor (Rendon) visits, proposing a holiday upstate. This gives them a chance to reconnect as their friendship dynamic has shifted, but Leo conceals that he's attracted to her. In a shop, they run into fellow trans actor Oliver (Myles), who has just landed a TV gig, and his friend Joe (Lotan), and they decide to hang out together. Conversations roll naturally, revealing the decades-long connection between Leo and Eleanor, especially as they layer in subtext as they chat about their relationships or read audition scripts together. Then when these two other guys join them, Leo's insecurities begin to emerge. And a secret fracture in Eleanor's relationship with her absent boyfriend further changes things, while a discussion of the nature of queerness raises provocative ideas, leading to some awkward revelations. Salvor Menuez and Rendon have terrific chemistry together, reflecting Leo and Eleanor's complicated back story, the things they connect around and also the things that divide them. When they finally get brutally honest with each other, the dialog remains grounded and open, deepening rather than breaking their relationship. These scenes are particularly well-played. And side roles feel very real as well, with notably strong moments for Myles and Sanborn. Eleanor's most salient comment is that she feels that Leo has become someone else, even as he's actually the same person. The question is how they accept themselves, and the spiralling waves of confusion show them things that they need to see. With continual moments of warm humour, the narrative develops to cleverly reflect the complexities of the characters and the bonds between them, leading somewhere that's remarkably truthful, and also hopeful.
| ||||||||||||
|
Ultraman: Rising Review by Rich Cline | 
Is it streaming?
|  Gorgeous animation and effects lift this child-friendly adventure, adding a generational twist to the iconic hero as well as his kaiju nemeses. So even if the plot and design lean toward the super-cute, with cuddly toy marketing in mind, strikingly emotional moments dig deeper into the nature of parent-child relationships and the idea of shared enemies. It also helps that the movie is also a lot of entertaining fun. After his mother's death, cocky baseball superstar Ken (Sean) moves from Los Angeles to Tokyo to take over the alter-ego of the kaiju-battling Ultraman from his ageing estranged father (Watanabe). When Ken rescues an infant monster, he has little choice but to raise her with help from his artificial-intelligence assistant Mina (Tomita). But Dr Onda (Young) is determined to capture this baby and obliterate the kaiju. While Ken gets some inspiration from single mum journalist Wakita (Harriman), the real question is how long it will be before he asks his dad for help. With bright colours and striking cross-hatched textures, the film looks terrific on a big screen, which sadly isn't where many will get to watch it. The offbeat visuals cleverly reflect comic book designs in everything from the stretched-out characters to the earth-rattling explosions. And at the centre is this absurdly adorable pink munchkin the size of a large elephant. She bonds instantly with Ultraman, but it takes awhile before Ken begins to feel paternal about her. Parental connections feature heavily for several characters. Ken harshly blames his dad for being too busy saving Japan from marauding monsters, and his father feels guilty about that. And then there's his mother's mysterious disappearance, which certainly leaves another shoe waiting to drop. The characters are defined just enough to make us care for them, especially when they behave badly. So there are some strongly moving moments alongside the visually arresting ones. The key detail is that these enormously destructive kaiju are not villains: they're just creatures reacting to the world around them, and it's up to Ultraman to heroically protect humanity. By contrast, Onda is a proper bad guy, cruelly jeopardising innocent life in his drive to find Kaiju Island and kill all leviathans once and for all. His motives may be simplistic, but they allow the animators to have a lot of fun with whizzy tech, plus enjoyable references to a variety of monster movies. And the film's buoyant tone makes us look forward to the next chapter.
| 
See also: SHADOWS FILM FESTIVAL © 2024 by Rich Cline, Shadows
on the Wall
HOME | REVIEWS | NEWS | FESTIVAL | AWARDS
| Q&A | ABOUT | TALKBACK | | ||||||||||
